On Being Naive Of Those With Whom We Share This Planet

I can be accused of being a little naïve.  I am.  I like myself that way.

I know that the people of the earth aren't exactly joining hands and singing about wanting to teach the world to sing and buy each other a coke.  It's silly to think like that.

But the country of Uganda is being downright pathetic.  They have a law moving through their parliament right now that has the support of big-time government officials, that would impose life imprisonment on homosexuals.

Is it too much to think that by now industrialized countries should have grown out of cave-dwelling ideals ?

Not everyone inside the borders of those countries has.  I can accept that.  Not everyone in this country has.

But the leaders of a prominent enough nation seem to believe that homosexuality should be punishable by ludicrously extreme measures.  To make matters worse, the legislation doesn't stop there.

It also aims to imprison anyone who knows of the existence of a gay or lesbian and fails to inform the police within 24 hours.

It offers up the death penalty for something it calls "aggravated homosexuality" which would target a relationship involving someone found to have HIV or Aids.

This is a country underneath our own British Commonwealth.

And its leaders think this way ?

Human rights groups have of course condemned the bill, speaking out against it, but it's in their house right now and it has support.

How sad is that ?

Would parliament in Uganda be O.K. if someone drew up a bill that stated that they didn't like the president's choice of suit colour, or his choice of coffee sweetener or the size of his nose ?  Would they threaten to punish or imprison him or anyone like him for it ?

That's how ridiculous this is.

You can say that as a species we have come so far and blather on about space travel and medical miracles, but until we make changes to the crux of who we are as individuals all over the planet, we haven't truly done anything.